Ni de aquí, ni de allá. Neither from here nor from there, yet shaped by both, belonging to both, claimed by neither. As a Mexican woman raised in Utah, I have spent my life reaching for a place to fully land. I paint the creatures who carry that same search, animals and women who hold their ground quietly, who are more than what’s been decided about them. This is work about quiet strength, the kind that doesn’t announce itself, because it was never given permission to.
El Hilo Que No Se Rompe
Ni de aquí, ni de allá
Oil on Canvas | Alla Prima | 16” x 12”
She doesn’t stop. She doesn’t ask to be seen. She carries the child, the laundry, the weight of what must be done, and she keeps walking. Her shadow grounding her to the earth beneath her feet.
El Hilo Que No Se Rompe is my connection to my native home, the thread that pulls me back across every mile and every year of feeling in between. She is not anyone I know. She is everyone I come from.
El Toro
Ni de aquí, ni de allá
Oil on Canvas | Alla Prima | 16” x 20”
When I began this painting, I stood between two subjects: a bison or a bull. The bison represented Utah, where I was raised. The bull, Mexico, where I was born. I painted the bull, not for acceptance, not for anyone else, but for myself. That choice contains the heart of this work, learning to stop translating, stop performing, stop trying to fit in, and paint from the fire I carry inside.
La Vigilancia
Ni de aquí, ni de allá
Oil on Canvas | Alla Prima | 14” x 18”
Small. Exposed. Completely still. The meerkat doesn’t move because movement would cost too much, so instead she watches, reads the air, holds her ground from the highest point she can find. The background dissolves around her, loose and uncertain, while she remains defined, present, alert. This is the strength that doesn’t rest. The awareness that becomes a way of life.
Emerging
Ni de aquí, ni de allá
Oil on Canvas | Alla Prima | 16” x 20”
The face is fully here. The body follows its own rules, dissolving into the background, neither completely nor gone. This is not unfinished. This is the truth of existing between worlds: some parts of you fully rendered, fully present, while the rest is still becoming. Still deciding. Still emerging.
Before You See Her
Ni de aquí, ni de allá
Oil on Canvas | Alla Prima | 20” x 16”
She was already watching before you knew she was there. Still, focused, completely sure of herself in a way that needs no announcement and asks for no permission.
Before you See Her is about that kind of presence, the strength that exists whether or not anyone stops to notice it. She doesn’t need to be seen to know exactly who she is.